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A History of D&D Video Games

There have been some great D&D video games over the years, along with some we'd like to forget.

J.C. Herz, in her personal journey through the history of video games, Joystick Nation, pinpoints the close connection between video gaming and Dungeons & Dragons:

"A high percentage of computer programmers were and are, not surprisingly, Dungeons & Dragons aficionados. There's an affinity between computer programming and games that require reams of graph paper and 20-sided dice. Both are artificial universes governed by quantifiable rules, probability, and obsessive mapping A combination of computers and dragon-slashing games was begging to happen."

Sure enough, many of the earliest video games, going all the way back to the original Nethack were attempts to translate that Dungeons & Dragons experience to the computer. Unfortunately, while the computer made the calculations and record-keeping of Dungeons & Dragons much easier, many of the game's softer qualities were much harder to quantify. As good as many of the licensed games were, they have yet to capture the open-ended magic of a simple D&D session with a creative Dungeon Master.

That's not to say, however, that there have never been any good Dungeons & Dragons video games. Far from it. Many of the D&D titles that have been produced over the years, ranging from the original Pools of Radiance to Dark Alliance 2 on the PS2 and Xbox have made the most of their limitations, bringing us fantastic stories, hours and hours of exciting action, and memorable experiences that gamers still discuss. Indeed, even the ones that weren't so great (or even the really awful ones) still managed to be memorable in some way, if only as an example of what not to do in a video game.

With that in mind, we're spending a week taking a look back at the history of Dungeons & Dragons video games. Some of these games you may have played and loved. Some of them may be available in bargain bins or on eBay. And some of them should have been dropped into the deepest pit in the Abyss where Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders should torment them from now until the day the sun grows cold. Regardless, though, all of them will bring back memories.